Magic Revealed to the Muggles (Harry Potter and the Two Worlds)
The Wizarding World has been exposed, and the Statute of Secrecy is no more. Hermione Granger-Weasley and Harry Potter appeared outside Buckingham Palace with the Queen of England and revealed the existence of magic on live television for the entire world to see.
Click here for the full story: "Harry Potter and the Two Worlds" by Birger, ao3
It was a sweltering summer evening in Washington, D.C. The lawns before the White House were packed with a crowd of thousands of American citizens waving red banners and smartphones. American flags whipped in the hot wind, and a stage had been conjured on the lawn, decorated with a golden seal that looked suspiciously enchanted.
Behind the podium stood President Donald Trump. Beside him, stiff and uncomfortable, was the President of MACUSA, Celestia Picquery, dressed in purple robes.
"This is undignified, " she muttered to herself.
Trump was already speaking, or at least, talking.
"Folks," he began, hands sweeping dramatically, "we've got something tremendous tonight. People, great people, have told me there's been… magic in America. Real magic. Not the kind with fake wands and, you know, rabbits and hats, though those are fantastic, by the way, great industry, lots of jobs, but the real deal."
He grinned at the cameras. "They tell me we've got witches! Wizards! We love wizards, don't we, folks? Always have, always will."
The crowd, consisting of Trump supporters in MAGA hats, cheered uncertainly. A man shouted, "Make America Magical Again!" to scattered applause.
Picquery closed her eyes briefly. "Merlin, save me."
Trump looked at her. "Now, I'm going to introduce someone, a very powerful lady. People say she's the most magical woman in the world, maybe ever. Tremendous lady. The best. Please welcome Celery… Piquet!"
Picquery took a deep breath as she stepped forward. "Celestia Picquery," she corrected. "I am the President of the Magical Congress of the United States of America."
The crowd murmured in scepticism.
"My fellow Americans," Picquery began, "for centuries, our worlds have lived apart. Hidden, yet intertwined. But the time has come, at the urging of our allies abroad, to reveal the truth. Magic is real. Witches are real."
There was a ripple of laughter and disbelief. Someone in the crowd shouted, "PROVE IT!"
Picquery rolled her eyes. "Very well."
She raised her wand. A silver spark burst from its tip. Then, with a graceful flick, a flock of bright bluebirds exploded into the air, flying above the stage in a glittering cloud.
Gasps rose from the crowd. Cameras flashed wildly, and children squealed in delight. However, plenty of MAGA supporters began to voice their scepticism.
Another shouted, "Smoke and mirrors!"
Picquery frowned at their disbelief. "You doubt?"
She pointed her wand toward a nearby limousine parked by the gates. A stream of light arced through the air, and the car lifted off the ground.
The crowd screamed. Phones flew up to record. Reporters shouted questions over one another.
Trump turned toward her. "That's, that's very impressive. I could use that at my rallies."
Before Picquery could respond, a deafening gunshot changed everything.
A member of the audience wearing a MAGA cap lowered his gun.
Picquery staggered backward, clutching her arm as blood blossomed across her sleeve. The crowd erupted into chaos, screams, and shouting.
Trump ducked behind the podium and yelled something about "a witch hunt."
Two Aurors appeared instantly to protect their president. One disarmed a man of his gun. The other grabbed Picquery by the shoulder.
"Hold on, Madam President!" he shouted.
With a sound like a thunderclap, both of them Disapparated, vanishing in a swirl of light. The remaining Auror stunned the attacker where he stood, then vanished as well, leaving behind only confusion, smoke, and panic.
The levitated limousine dropped back to earth with a crash, setting off its alarm. The bluebirds dissolved into sparks.
Above the stage, the giant American flag still rippled proudly, but the cheers had turned to screams, the music to sirens, and the moment meant to unite the world had ended in blood and disbelief.
Somewhere across the ocean, Hermione Granger-Weasley's voice was being broadcast live from Buckingham Palace. However, here in Washington, D.C., all anyone could talk about was the witch who'd appeared beside the President, and vanished in a burst of fire and thunder.
Paris glittered under twilight. Thousands of French citizens, both wizards and Moldu, had gathered in the Place de la Concorde for a live broadcast that would mark the beginning of a new age. At the center of it all stood a grand stage draped in blue velvet and the French tricolour, flanked by banners bearing both the crest of the French Republic and the Sigil of the Ministère de la Magie Française.
High above the crowd, magical wards shimmered faintly in the dusky sky, invisible to most, but clear to the handful of witches and wizards scattered among the spectators.
Near the front, Bill and Fleur Weasley stood with their two youngest children, Dominique and Louis.
"I don't like this," she murmured in French while holding Louis's hand tightly. "Too many people. Too much noise."
Bill smiled. "It'll be all right. This is history. My dad's dream has come true."
Onstage, President Emmanuel Macron stepped forward to the podium, dressed in a formal black suit. Beside him stood Minister of Magic Armande Dupont, a stunning woman with silver streaks in her dark hair.
"Mesdames et Messieurs," Macron began, "tonight, I speak to you not merely as President, but as a witness to something extraordinary. Something—"
He hesitated, searching for words.
"—that challenges everything we thought we knew of the world."
He turned slightly to Dupont. "Madame la Ministre?"
Dupont nodded and stepped forward. "For over three centuries," she said, "the magical and Moldu communities of France have lived apart, bound by an ancient law known as the Statut du Secret. But tonight, that veil is lifted. I, and many like me, am a witch."
Gasps rippled through the crowd. Some laughed while others shouted in disbelief, denial, and excitement. Cameras flashed like lightning.
Fleur's heart swelled. "At last," she whispered. "After all these years..."
Dupont raised her wand. "To demonstrate," she said calmly.
A spray of golden light burst from the tip, swirling into the air before forming a great glittering fleur-de-lis above the square. The crowd gasped, cheering, clapping.
From somewhere in the throng, a voice screamed a curse in a Slavic language that Bill recognized from the war. A streak of purple fire tore through the air toward the stage. Dupont reacted instantly, flicking her wand, and the curse ricocheted, slamming into a nearby gendarme.
The policeman screamed in agony, collapsing to the ground as violet lightning danced over his body.
Above the square, the sky darkened unnaturally. Smoke curled and twisted, forming a monstrous shape: It was the Dark Mark, now fused with the symbol of the Auguery.
Panic erupted, and the elegant square dissolved into chaos.
"Bill!" Fleur cried. "The children!"
Onstage, Dupont seized Macron's arm. "We must go, vite!"
With a crack, both vanished, leaving the battle behind.
Masked figures appeared in the smoke and began to fire curses at any wizard and Moldu in sight. Aurors countered the masked attackers immediately, and the square became a battlefield. A fountain exploded, and statues shattered. Moldu ran screaming toward the Champs-Élysées as police drew guns, firing blindly into the smoke.
"Bill!" Fleur cried as her children became lost in the chaos. "The children!"
Bill pulled out his wand. "Louis! Dominique!"
"Papa!" Louis cried, then was yanked from Fleur's grip by the surge of fleeing bodies.
Bill forced his way forward, casting shields left and right as stray spells shattered stone and glass. A Death Eater's curse struck a statue beside him before being shot by the police.
"Protego!" he roared, blocking a hex and firing one back, stunning the attacker into a café wall.
Fleur's hair was flying and her eyes glowed faintly with Veela rage. "Find the children!" she shouted over the chaos.
Unfortunately, the children were lost in the tide of terrified Parisians, the screams, and the battle between wands and guns as the City of Light plunged into darkness.
Tiananmen Square was packed with both Magicians in colorful robes and commoners, dressed in suits, who waited for their leaders to make a special announcement in the middle of the night.
On the balcony above Mao's portrait, which was now moving, stood President Bo Xilai, immaculate in his dark Mao suit, and beside him, Madam Zhang Mei-Lin, the Chinese Minister for Magic. Her robes were embroidered with dragons and phoenixes that moved when she breathed. Beneath them on the ground stood rows of Aurors in emerald robes, shoulder to shoulder with the people's police. Thousands of citizens crowded behind barriers.
Among the crowd stood Cho Chang, once Seeker for Ravenclaw and veteran of the Battle of Hogwarts, now living quietly in Hong Kong. Beside her was her husband, Liang Wei, a former democracy activist. Their seventeen-year-old daughter, Olivia, held her mother's hand tightly.
"It's really happening," Olivia said. "The whole world's finally seeing us. Witches and non-magicals no longer separated."
"A new world built on the same old foundation, " Liang sighed. "Do you truly think they'd share power with magicians any more than they share it with ordinary people?"
Cho shot him a look. "Liang. Please. Not now."
A fanfare of horns cut through the air. President Bo began his speech, his voice magnified across the square and a thousand broadcast charms.
"Citizens of China, and citizens of the world!" he began. "Tonight, we reveal a truth long hidden. Among us live those blessed with ancient power a magic that has shaped our myths, our arts, our nation itself!"
Polite applause followed, but real excitement rippled only when Madam Zhang lifted her wand.
"For three centuries, the Statute of Secrecy bound our world apart. No longer. The Ministry of Magic and the Communist Party of China now stand as one. Harmony between the magical and the non-magical is China's new destiny."
She pointed her wand skyward. A streak of golden light burst into the night. The clouds parted, and from their midst emerged two colossal, wingless dragons
The crowd gasped in awe and wonder at the sight of the flying mythical beasts. The dragons twined together, roaring as fireworks exploded around them in bursts of lotus-shaped flame. Their dance filled the heavens as though the old spirits of the ancient Middle Kingdom had awoken at last.
"Mum, it's beautiful! " Olivia exclaimed. You fought in a war so that things like this could happen, didn't you? So we could all be together."
Cho's heart swelled and broke all at once. "Something like that." She had been waiting for this day since she rescued her husband from a black jail in Chongqing 19 years ago, when she first moved back to her home country.
Liang's gaze stayed fixed on the balcony. "Or so they could put magic under the same flag that already owns every thought in this square."
Olivia turned on him. "Why do you have to ruin everything? For once, can't you just see the good?"
"Because, Olivia," he said quietly, "I know what happens when the government tells you a miracle is for your own good."
Above them, the dragons curved into the shape of a great red heart, showering sparks over the square. The crowd roared its approval.
Cho squeezed her husband's arm. "Please," she whispered. "Not tonight."
He didn't answer. His eyes were on the Aurors at the perimeter, speaking urgently into communication charms. Something about their stance chilled him.
Madam Zhang and President Bo raised their joined hands to signal the finale. "Let magic and reason walk together forever!" she proclaimed.
The dragons roared before disappearing into the sky. Fireworks erupted in perfect synchrony, painting the sky in gold, crimson, and violet.
The crowd cheered wildly. Olivia wiped tears from her eyes. "It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
However, Cho, watching the wards shimmer faintly around the perimeter and the anxious faces of the Aurors, felt a prickling dread she couldn't name.
Liang leaned close. "Beauty," he murmured, "is the easiest mask for control."
Cho said nothing. She only stared at the empty sky where the dragons had vanished and wondered if, somewhere beyond the smoke and cheers, the world's magic had just chained itself to the seats of Muggle authority.
Story: "Harry Potter and the Two Worlds" by Birger, ao3
